ladyinblack64

I need some info on making phone calls from phone booths in London. I don't have a smart phone and will be traveling without my cell phone, as I don't have an international calling plan. I understand international calling cards are not the best way to go. I suppose I could call home the old fashioned way, with a pocketful of change.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Thanks!

Robert2533

I didn't know London still had phone booths. I thought they had all been converted into mobile phone charging stations.

You may have to use the telephone at your hotel, which will be expensive.

sofarsogood

Unless you want to spend time looking for phone booths, then have the delights of reading about the services offered by Sexy Sue from Soho, or Dirty Doris from Dagenham stickered all over the booths, the best think would be pop into a branch of the carphone warehouse and buy a cheap basic pay as you go phone and add some credit. They can be very cheap.

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/pay...go/deal-finder

ladyinblack64

I won't have a phone in my room at my B&B.
Thanks for the carphone warehouse link!

janisj

Yes, There are still working phone boxes around London. Some still take coins, but I think most have converted to cards.

>> I understand international calling cards are not the best way to go. <<

What makes you say that? If you are calling internationally and don't have a mobile, you really should get a phone card. I haven't used one in a few years, so I'm not sure - but they used to be sold all over in convenience shops, stations, etc.

I don't have an international plan either -- but you can buy a very cheap phone in London w/ some prepaid minutes that would be easier.

sassy27

I am sure you will get lots of ideas and posts on this. I can only tell you what I do as my cell phone is not international and I'm too lazy to figure it out. I do use my iPad for FaceTime when I have Internet and to those who also have face time. I also have my travel phone. I just had to upgrade it as the new SIM card I was given was no longer compatible with the unlocked flip phone.

If you might be traveling often, you might just want to buy an unlocked phone or get one over there. You would just need to also get a SIM card which I hear are cheap. I am lazy as I'm sure a phone and SIM can somewhere be cheaper but I bought a phone for $50 with $10 credit SIM. They had cheaper phones but I said what the heck. I travel internationally at least twice a year so thought it would just be best to get a smart phone. I also loan it out to friends and family and it also works in the US. It has both a US and UK number. I used it last week with no issues. If you want try this www.telestial.com. I have been using them for years with no issues and their customer service is great even overseas. I got the phone two days after ordering it. The only catch though is you have to make a call once a month to keep your US number active. You can get another one but I like to keep the one I have.

Heimdall

If your cellphone is unlocked you can replace it with a local SIM, assuming the phone is compatible with British cellphone networks. Even when I don't plan to use my cellphone in foreign countries, I bring it along to make calls while travelling to/from my local airport.

If you have a tablet you can make Skype calls from wifi networks, and your B&B will probably have one.

ladyinblack64

I will have my tablet. If the person at home just has a landline, can I still talk to them using Skype? We don't have a cam or microphone on the desktop at home.

I heard international cards don't have good rates in Britain. That the calls are s/thing like 8p a minute.

janisj

>>I heard international cards don't have good rates in Britain. That the calls are s/thing like 8p a minute.<<

That is only about 11¢ so even @ 8p that isn't bad. A 15 minute international call would be barely $1.50. There are different cards that are better depending on which countries you are calling. (but again as I said I haven't used one for maybe 4 or 5 years)

I take an iPad mini and use it for e-mail - which is usually better for me anyway for contacting folks back home because of the time difference.

Andrew

Install Google Hangouts (Dialer) on your tablet, so you can make free phone calls (even to landlines) back in the US while on WiFi. You can try this before you leave for London.

If you get a Google Voice number (free), then you can also receive phone calls via Google Hangouts. Google Voice has free voicemail, too. You can forward your US cell phone number to the Google Voice number while you are gone so you can receive calls on the tablet and even receive voicemail there.

Heimdall

<i>"I will have my tablet. If the person at home just has a landline, can I still talk to them using Skype?"</i>

Yes, you can — Skype calls to landlines aren't free, but they are cheap. You will have to add credit to your Skype account, and the app should tell you how to do it.

Andrew

You can get unlimited calling to the US (and Canada) with Skype for $2.99/month - or $13.99/month for unlimited calling internationally.

https://secure.skype.com/en/calling-...t.mc_id=legacy

You can also buy a Skype number (to receive calls) - $18 for three months or $60/year.

But there's really no advantage over Google anymore for an American - Google being free is a big advantage. Someone who lives in Europe can't get a Google phone number in Europe but could get a European number with Skype, so that would be an advantage for a European.

Southam

I used a public phone in a train station last week. No fuss: It took my credit card. I'll pay through the nose for a foreign currency charge but it was the only call I needed to make during two weeks so the lack of hassle was worth it.

sparkchaser

<i>Install Google Hangouts (Dialer) on your tablet, so you can make free phone calls (even to landlines) back in the US while on WiFi. You can try this before you leave for London.

If you get a Google Voice number (free), then you can also receive phone calls via Google Hangouts. Google Voice has free voicemail, too. You can forward your US cell phone number to the Google Voice number while you are gone so you can receive calls on the tablet and even receive voicemail there.</i>

This is solid advice. This is what I use to call from Europe back to the states. Works perfectly fine provided your WiFi connection is fast enough. Well, the voicemail doesn't do a very good job of transcribing but that's ok.

xyz123

I get the impression the op feels a bit challenged in dealing with mobile phones which I understand (if not, please forgive me). In any event, there are 21st century ralities that we have to deal with.

Great Britain is no different than say the USA in this manner. Public pay phones are an endangered species. I'm not saying none exist but they are getting harder and harder to find and there's always a problem figuring out how they work and they charge an arm and almost a leg. Why? Because almost every 10 year old kid today walks around with a mobile phone (mre likely a smartphone).

Now having said that, there's no reason not to at leasst get a very basic phone. It doesn't have to be a smartphone. It doesn't have to be data ready. You can get a perfectly adequate unlocked 2nd generation gsm phone with the European frequencies for next to nothing on ebay.

On arrval, go into a vodafone store. They can sell you a sim card for as little as £5. You can buy a bundle of UK minutes and texts for 2¢£10. They will sign you up for the international plan. Now you can make all the calls you want for plenty of minutes (you will not exceed the limit, believe me) within the UK. You can call the USA and Canada for as little as 1.5 p (2¢ us) per minute. It is very simple and it will take about 10 minutes of your time (one answer I often see on these boards is I don't want to waste any of my precious time when I'm on holiday).

And one nice thing about Great Britain. They speak a language remarkably similar to ours. You won't have any trouble reading the literature. Go to any of the web sites of the British operators to get a feel about it. You most likely will not be sorry.

Andrew

The OP has a tablet so should be able to use Google Hangouts or Skype and not really need to buy an actual phone unless she wants to be able to make calls when not on WiFi.

xyz123

Let me simply say this and not in a disagreeable manner. The reality today is you won't always have on street wifi and there may be times where in the past you looked for the nearest pay phone. Given the low price of this today, I really believe everybody should have a mobile phone. There are, admitedly, a myriad of ways to accomplish this.

Andrew

The OP has a mobile phone. She has elected not to take it to Europe. It seems she needs to call home only occasionally and seems not to need to be reached, only to make occasional calls home. There is no need for a mobile phone for this. Because she will have her tablet, Google Hangouts, Skype, or other apps should work fine to be able to call home occasionally when she has WiFi - and with Google, at no extra cost. I see no need to try to make the simple solution to her query more complicated or expensive than it need be.

ladyinblack64

Hello, OP here. I will have wifi in my room, and don't plan to carry my tablet around. As convenient as that might be, I have back issues and don't need the extra weight in my day bag. I don't really need to make many calls at all--I just want to stay in touch a bit with my DH. That said, I could probably get away with simply emailing him.

Lots of suggestions here. Thank you!

Andrew

Give the Google Hangouts app a try - it works really well.